Rev. Paula Ashby could not have had a stranger introduction to life as a United Church minister in Creston.
In August, not long after she had accepted “a call” to become the church’s pastor, she was sitting in a provincial church workshop. Next to her, the B.C. personnel director got a text message on her cellphone and gestured to Ashby to follow her out of the room.
“She showed me the message,” she said. “I was just stunned.”
Within minutes Ashby was speaking to people who were standing on 10th Avenue North, watching smoke, and then flames, pour from Trinity United Church.
Ashby grew up as an air force brat, living on NATO bases throughout Europe. As an adult she owned and operated a newspaper in Gibsons. Later, she and her husband relocated to Marin County, Calif., where she ran a lifestyle magazine.
Her experience as a journalist paved the way for a 20-year career with the provincial government, where she did administrative work and wrote news releases.
“I have always been active in the church,” she said. “Mainly in the youth ministry, study groups and retreats.”
In 2000, she was ordained as a minister and soon afterward moved to Hazelton, which is situated on the infamous Highway of Tears, Highway 16. Her connections in the government were useful, and she helped organize annual protests in which people would stand alongside the highway holding photographs of the murder victims.
“That got a lot of attention, and that’s all we wanted.”
Later, in Victoria, she would run a street ministry, working with poor and homeless people in the inner city. Most recently she and her husband lived in Comox and she worked part-time for a small congregation an hour’s drive away.
“My husband and I moved to Comox to care for my mother, who had Alzheimer’s,” Ashby said. “We moved in to keep her in her home as long as we could.”
In the small community of Cedar, where she worked weekends, she ran what she describes as “a little experiment.”
She and the congregation worked together to create a community that doesn’t need clergy.
“I guess you could say I was doing myself out of a job,” she laughed. “That’s how I got to Creston!”
The call to take over as minister of Trinity United Church offered a certain level of comfort. For many years the Ashbys spent summer vacations in the area, where they pursued their love of fishing.
“The best bass I’ve ever had came out of Duck Lake!”
Small town life has an appeal.
“It’s a huge draw. It’s how I thrive.”
She was offered the choice of turning down the position here after the fire, but she didn’t even consider not taking the job.
“The fire? Maybe it’s why I’m here, to bring my sheep back into the fold,” she said. “We are working together and developing trust — we are all in this together.”
While Sunday services are being held in the Anglican Church, the congregation has no place to call its own, no ideal venue to host its Wednesday lunches, Bible studies and other activities that members enjoy. The disruption in routines has not been easy.
“Everybody processes grief in different ways,” Ashby said.
It has been five years or more since the Ashbys came to the Creston Valley to camp but the sense of familiarity is welcome.
“I still recognize places. Creston Valley Bakery is still here with its amazing bread!”
With a temporary office space close to the bakery on 10th Avenue North she is getting to know the congregation (and community) and its needs, but the church’s short-term future is far from clear. Insurance companies are working to get the restoration going and remediation of items is expensive because there is asbestos in the building.
“Finding a (temporary) place is proving to be ridiculously difficult,” she admitted. “We need to come together, but where? There are many empty spaces, but none with a kitchen, which is more important than a pulpit!”
While moving to a community with no church in place has its challenges, Ashby said she has no regrets.
“People have been really sweet and very supportive, and thank goodness for that,” she smiled. “People help each other out — that’s just what they do. There is a kindness here that is not just a way of living, it’s a way of being.”
